


Can you Hear that Trickling Sound? Ew!  Are there germs in that water?

by CriticalCXGShipped



Category: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-25
Updated: 2018-04-25
Packaged: 2019-04-27 17:05:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14430204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CriticalCXGShipped/pseuds/CriticalCXGShipped
Summary: Nathaniel went to raging waters with Mona, what was going through his head?  Why does Nathaniel hate germs? And Direct Sunlight? And People? Does Mona have a personality besides rubbishing her smelly colleagues? Why does Nathaniel love going to the zoo?





	Can you Hear that Trickling Sound? Ew!  Are there germs in that water?

Ever since Nathaniel had seen Rebecca's class action suit in the paper he had kept an email RSS feed on West Covina, Rebecca Bunch, Whitefeather and Associates and Raging Waters. He followed all the tags on twitter at first but the notifications got annoying so he disabled them. Raging Waters didn't seem so relevant now, but there had been a whole follow-up piece in the opinions section about inequality of water parks and associated human interest stories about West Covina Residents who were part of the suit. Of course, the plebs celebrated being heard by indulging in overpriced fried food at the water park. They were pictured, chubby, funny-looking persons exploding out of water tunnels, dripping with water, floating in donuts on the wave pool, watching movies in rafts while eating yet more fried food ( how did they expect to look halfway decent if they consumed their full daily allowance of calories in onion rings?).

Now, Friday afternoon on a slow day in the office, an email from Raging Waters was in his inbox, there was half-off Raging Waters Merchandise if you bought a ticket for two or more this Sunday. He could buy a Raging Waters cup and casually drink from it in the break room, then Darryl would ask about it, Paula would overhear and tell Rebecca, maybe. But no, that was too subtle. He could buy a raging waters T-shirt and jog past Rebecca's house? No, she knew those tricks... Maybe. Hmmm.

Nathaniel got out his phone and brought up Mona from his contacts, she would go with him, she didn't ask questions about why they would go, she had seen him play water polo, she would like a chance to see his shoulders and waxed chest and show off in one of her bikinis. In the haze of her conversation last week she had mentioned looking at Frankies Bikini's in a 'lookbook', or something.  
'Hey, want to go to Raging Waters this weekend? We can laugh at the drunk people in the wave pool?" he wrote.

He sent the text and waited a moment, looking out the window. Instantly the bubble appeared, she was typing. He put his phone down, that meant yes, whatever she had to say would be along those lines anyway. He heard the chime of a new text and amongst the smiley faces and picture emojis of sunglasses and bikinis he figured she was game.  
"Great, pick you up at 9" he texted back. He went to the kitchenette to get more black coffee, not bothering to check her reply.

Nathaniel decided to do a longer workout tonight to make his shoulders pop. If he was working out, then he could have creamer in his coffee, just a little. As he stirred his coffee Nathaniel thought smugly that Rebecca would notice this on her Instagram. She didn't seem to be on there much after the Lederhosen pictures, so maybe she was busy with therapy or something. Surely she would see this, she probably followed #ragingwaters. After all, she never got to go in the end. Gearing up for the day, he realised he wasn't looking forward to the germs. I mean, the place must be crawling with them, e coli, shigella, salmonella, protozoan cysts, and who knew how well they filtered those things out. 

Hundreds of people sweating and eating and, he hated to think, pooping in the disgusting restrooms and then heading out down a water slide without showering afterwards. Then opening their mouths to swallow a big old bacterial, viral parasite cocktail and starting the cycle of infection all over again, he shuddered at the thought. Nathaniel always showered after, well, everything, that was basic cleanliness, right? The best thing about being on a mostly liquid diet meant that he didn't have to, you know, as often, it was gross. Now that he wasn't with Rebecca he was back to his usual diet, he ate dinner, especially if he was out somewhere with Mona, but the rest of the day was liquid liquid liquid.

Then there was the direct sunlight. It was too hot. He preferred the coolness of the air conditioning, he liked to swim indoors unless he was at an actual beach. Who subjected themselves to outdoor swimming? It was murder on his tan and made him want to eat and drink more calories. The crowds weren't even worth mentioning. He hated crowds, noisy, annoying places, thats why he went to the zoo at night. Esteban and he had gotten separated once at the zoo, he was looking at the zebras and Esteban's hand slipped out of his and then in the crowds there were just so many faces and voices, their eyes slid over his face and then disappeared but were quickly replaced by another strange face. He clung to the fences of the Zebra cage and stood still, like he had been taught. 

It seemed like hours before Esteban found him and said softly in Spanish "Good boy, you stay put, I bought you juice in the San Diego Zoo Cup", by then he had been so hot and tired from waiting in the heat that he sucked down the juice in seconds, getting brain freeze and feeling sick afterwards. Later that night, driving home in the car with Esteban at the wheel, he felt himself falling asleep, he was so tired. When he woke he saw Esteban's familiar, creased face, his arms lifted him and rested his head in his shoulder. "You're a good boy" Esteban said again. As they entered in the house, his mother's voice started to ask how it went before her voice dropped to a whisper. "How was he Esteban?" she asked, lightly stroking the hair away from his face and kissing his cheek. "He was a good boy" he said. "He's always such a good boy at the zoo", then he had carried him upstairs and put him to bed with the help of his mother, who pulled back the clean sheets and removed his shoes before tucking him in, stroking his forehead and kissing him again. 

"Nat, this is going to be so fun!" said Mona in her even, sweet tones. She tucked herself neatly into the passenger seat, crossing her legs. She barely filled the centre of the seat and her coverup dress trailed expensively across the stick shift before she tucked it neatly by her sides again. She removed her straw hat and sunglasses to check her hair in the mirror and her makeup matched the burgundy bikini showing through the sheer fabric of the cover up. She was beautiful, and smiled to show her perfect, even teeth.

"Well, really I'm just going here as research for this whole water park thing. There's a developer thinking of building a Raging Waters in West Covina, but the water pressure problem still isn't really fixed." Nathaniel said, yawning. She didn't need to know the truth, she would be happy to pose for a picture and then head to a nice clean hotel beach or pool where they stuck to regulations about cleanliness.

"Oh" Mona's face fell, but artificially brightened. "Oh, Nat, you didn't mention that. I thought you loved the water, you swim so well" she said, placing her manicured hand on his arm as he drove.  
"Oh yeah, swimming is a great workout" he tried to sound enthusiastic. Nathaniel liked swimming; specifically, he liked swimming laps, butterfly mainly. He liked it when he worked so hard his arms burned and he felt hot all over, like his metabolism was going through the roof, he liked to imagine the fat on his body melting away. In other ways the pool was associated with the smell of chlorine, sticky swimsuits to peel off when your arms were floppy with exhaustion, and the grinding stomach pain of failure, yet again failing to make a goal, or making plenty, but still never seeing a smile on the old man's dial. 

"Nat, oh, you look worried, is this a big case?" Mona asked, in her reliably sweet way, slipping her hand in his.  
The truth was, he did want to pursue the class action suit again, but he needed time, resources and more evidence and the last thing he could cope with again was another failure, another loss of face. Sometimes the worlds of water polo and the court room crossed over too much for his liking. Was he good enough? The LA water company had creamed Whitefeather last time. 

"Yeah, yeah, it's huge, so big, in fact, that you can't tell anyone about it. It's going to take a long time to gather enough evidence about it to reopen the case" Mona looked gravely at him. "I'm sure you can do it" she laid her head against his shoulder, admiring the dip where the clavicle met the top of his arm, stroking the muscles hesitantly. 

Mona, loyal as always, happily consented to an instagram, posed together with her tiny body tucked against his, hiding his belly ( he was holding onto a bit of water), she only insisted on using the 'vivid' filter to enhance the blue of the water. Then she redressed without protest and asked him where to next. Rebecca would have slapped his arm and teased him about his flat belly not holding water, rolled her eyes and forced him to come on one of the rides with her where he didn't have to get wet. Then she would have gone down a slide and popped out of her bikini like a showgirl before insisting they ate fried food and watched a corny family movie on a shared water raft. Why did none of that sound terrible if he had been with Rebecca?

"The Palm Springs hotel" he smiled. That pool was clean, and he knew the owners there. The bartender swapped out sugar for splenda in the Mojitos. "I'll buy you dinner and a diet Mojito after a swim, do you mind if I do some laps?" He asked, casually putting an arm around her firm waist. "Sure, I can watch you pound them out" she said supportively. He caught sight of their reflection in a glass door. She was dainty, striking and had a perfect, slim figure, like the girls he had dated before Rebecca. He hesitantly looked over at himself, his swimsuit looked pretty good on him, and his tan made him look golden and handsome. The rest of him, well that would improve after a mile or two of laps. He opened up his instagram and uploaded the photos to his account, waiting for the likes. Maybe she would see them, maybe she would be upset. He smiled to himself, pleased that she might notice him again.  
"What are you smiling at?" Asked Mona, looking over his shoulder. "Oh that's a nice photo! You look hot!" she held his face in her hands and kissed him, moving closer and opening her mouth. He laughed softly, kissing her back. It was nice to be wanted and admired, it felt quite a bit like the feeling he got when Rebecca watched him closely, while he ate, or washed dishes, or flossed his teeth. It would do for now.


End file.
